Report: Mattrick's Xbox Exodus Spurred By Upcoming Reorganization

Fast Company has published a profile of new Zynga CEO (and former Microsoft president of interactive entertainment) Don Mattrick. The piece is an interesting look at a man recently at the receiving end of gamer backlash, but more importantly hints at upcoming changes in Redmond.

The piece speculates that Mattrick's departure, which left the Xbox One launch in the hands of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, was unexpected but also instigated by a major reorganization that will be taking place in the coming days. It also suggests that Phil Spencer, current head of Microsoft Studios, will be tapped to take over the interactive entertainment business.

Fast Company's sources point to the shakeup as the primary reason for Mattrick's departure. He was rumored to be in line to lead a new hardware division.

Mattrick is known for being an aggressive business strategist, turning around the Xbox business. His tenure is marked by the hiring of former CBS executive Nancy Tellem to lead the Entertainment Studios and the spearheading of the Kinect project (which has now sold 10 million units).

Our TakeI suggested yesterday that Phil Spencer would be a smart pick to fill Mattrick's role, and I stand by that. He's got the right personality, a deep love of gaming, and a long history at the company. Even if he doesn't get tapped to take the lead, putting him in front of gamers would be the smart choice.

As for an organizational shakeup, it's clearly needed. The Xbox brand needs to become more focused, and the communication needs to be tighter. Most importantly, it needs to happen quickly. In his role as CEO, Steve Ballmer has an entire company to worry about, which means the Xbox One launch isn't going to get the attention it needs from him.

Microsoft would have never received the backlash it did if it weren't for how poor Mattrick conveyed their message. Instead of highlighting the new things you could do with their DRM, they only said "you can't do this, and you can't do this. If you don't like it, play the 360." I've never seen someone that was so disconnected with reality before.

Microsoft as a whole is in a bit of a mess right now. They're desperately trying to repair the consumer problem Windows 8 has, and it's not like Windows phones and Surface tablets are flying off the shelves.
And does anyone even use Bing?
I hope they get their act together. The more the merrier in this industry.

The "reorganization" would be leave Mattrick either canned or having a serious demotion. His handling of the XB One reveal was a disaster and then PR afterward was even worse. Microsoft is at least making good decisions and trying to tighten up. In my opinion, the damage is already done.

Again, I think the XBox One had a very defined vision but (a) it was poorly communicated (so why are we giving up these rights again?) and (b) the infrastructure isn't in place yet.

Mattrick was going for the console of the future where everything was always connected for seamless single player & multiplayer gaming. The way I see it, the XB1 was to bring MMO gaming to console gamers with Western developers... which in my opinion would have been a truly amazing development of the MMO genre and of the industry.

It's just so sad that it was so poorly communicated and so much of the negatives were discussed versus the positives of the system. They really need to hire new PR people (JFC!).

What's ironic is I don't even like the X360. I am a Sony & Nintendo fan but I would have loved to have seen this different direction that Microsoft was going to go into.

It was a huge risk taken by Mattrick and again in that I respect that he was trying to push something so different. I believe they were really trying to become that elite niche brand in the gaming industry. Unfortunately, I don't think they communicated that well.

Mattrick's word choices were poor and they should have branded the XB1 as something that everyone needs to have because it was about the future of gaming. They needed to be more concrete and not use so many PR buzz words (again get rid of your crap PR team) and show the vision that they thought was the future of gaming.

In every way possible they truly screwed up the messaging of this console and it's really *** sad.

Microsoft's got their tail between their legs after this brutal summer showing for the X-Box. If their re-organizing now, it's only because their being driven by fear of this fall. Somewhere Jack Tretton's laughing behind a curtain with a burning Kinect effigy. . .

Microsoft you are not going to get a penny from me for your gaming devices (much less half a grand) any time soon. You have a long way to go to prove you can turn around your completely unorganized mess of an Xbox division. You have appeared completely clueless on your focus or goals while being completely out of touch what your consumers want. Hell, I'm not sure if you even know who your consumer or target audience is.

he just realized microsoft is a sinking ship. he dident want his name on the xbox one anymore so he got in the life raft and let everyone else drown. shame on u. u helped make the thing now ur makeing everyone else fix the problems

Microsoft just keeps dropping the ball. Ok now Microsofty's great idea is to put the person in charge of Windows 8 in control of a gaming machine?!! Really!? Oh yeah, he should know a lot about gaming and what gamers want, right? This is what happens when you care more about making money then satisfying you customers.